How do I update cost basis in a new account

Brechin

I have had to open new accounts, and the assets are being transferred to the new account. However, no cost basis is being carried over. I have the cost bases for each of the funds, but I don't see any way to enter them into the new accounts.

Brechin

Thanks for your comments, but I don't download from a site. I manually enter the info. But I think I just found the answer by clicking on the spaceholder transaction and manually enter the average cost from there.

q_lurker

Were the account and securities previously represented in Quicken?  If so, two options:

1. Simply change the account description to refer to the new brokerage. If you had been downloading from the old brokerage you would also deactivate the online connection. After that deactivation, you could activate the connection to the new brokerage. OR
2. Before connecting to the new brokerage, use Shares Transferred to transfer holdings to the new account. That will move shares lot by lot and include the acquisition dates and cost basis of each lot. Cash will need to be a separate transfer. 

I’d go for option 1 if you can make that work. 

Brechin

Thanks for your comments, but I don't download from a site. I manually enter the info. But I think I just found the answer by clicking on the spaceholder transaction and manually enter the average cost from there.

Tom Young

@Brechin

I don't understand your comment here. If you use Quicken and have entered all transaction information manually, then I don't understand why you'd essentially throw away that detail by using the kludge of a placeholder for average cost, which you can't use for stocks in any case.

First, the Shares Transferred Between Accounts action absolutely does populate the basis for each security, lot by lot.  This is accomplished by a global Removed action for each security in the old Account and then a series of Added transactions for each lot of that security in the new Account.  So I don't understand why you're saying that basis doesn't carry over if you used the Shares Transferred Between Account action.  Ar you sure you did that properly?  Transactions in a security don't show up in the new Account, but the lot-by-lot basis should.

The fact that you don't download transactions makes it a no-brainier to me that simply changing the name of the Account is the dead-simple way of preserving all the transactions and all the correct basis in what is now a "different" brokerage Account.